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Molly Helen Shannon, born September 16, 1964, is a 52-year-old American comic actress. She is known for her roles on Saturday Night Live, Superstar, Year of the Dog, and she guested starred on Glee as Brenda Castle in 2010.

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Personal life

Shannon was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio to Margaret (Peg) Keating and James F. Shannon.[1] She has two sisters, Mary Beatty and Katie (deceased). Sadly, when Shannon was four she was involved in a car accident that killed her mother, her sister and a cousin.[2] She attended St. Dominic School in Shaker Heights for grade school, and Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio. Shannon attended New York University, where she studied drama and graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1987.[3]

Shannon with her husband Fritz Chesnut.

She married Fritz Chesnut, an artist, on May 29, 2004 and they have two children, Stella (born 2003) and Nolan (born 2005).[2][4]

Career

Televison and movie roles

Before Saturday Night Live, Shannon had a struggling career in movies, her most notable being a supporting role as Meg in the 1989 horror film remake of The Phantom of the Opera with Robert Englung. In 1991, she had a brief appearance in the second season of Twin Peaks, and in 1993, she appeared with minor roles in two episodes of In Living Color, the first in a fake TV commercials with Chris Rock (played by Shawn Wayans), and the second in a sketch with Jim Carrey, playing LAPD Sergeant Stacey Koon.

Shannon's major break came in February 1995, when she was hired as a featured player on Saturday Night Live to replace Janeane Garofalo, after Garofalo left mid-season. Shannon was one of the few cast members to be (along with David Spade, Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney and Tim Meadows when Lorne Michaels engaged in a major cast overhaul between seasons 20 and 21.

She appeared in a 1997 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Summer of George," where she played Sam, the co-worker who drove Elaine Benes crazy because she did not swing her arms while walking. She also appeared in Sheryl Crow's video for the song "A Change (Will Do You Good)" and played the recurring role of loony neighbor Val Bassett, Grace Adler's nemesis, on Will & Grace, appearing in five episodes over the sitcom's eight-season run. In 1998, she played the role of Emily Sanderson in the film A Night at Roxbury, featuring Will Ferell and Chris Kattan who were also cast members of SNL at the time.

In 1999, Shannon starred in Superstar, a feature film based on her most famous SNL character, Mary Katherine Gallagher, the awkward Catholic school student who aspires to be a musical superstar.

Shannon left SNL in 2001, surpassing Victoria Jackson as the show's longest-serving female cast member (she has since been surpassed by Rachel Dracth, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler). In 2003, she appeared in the romantic comedy My Boss's Daughter and the television remake of The Music Man.

In 2004, she starred in a short-lived Fox network television series Cracking Up with actor Jason Schwartzman. That same year, she guest starred in an episode of Scrubs and starred as Mrs. Baker in the film Good Boy!. In 2006, Shannon was featured in the Sofia Coppola directed movie Marie Antoinette as Aunt Victoire. The next year, Shannon guest starred on ABC's Pushing Daisies and the film Evan Almighty. Shannon also made a rare move to drama, appearing in the critically acclaimed film Year of the Dog in 2007.

Shannon hosted Saturday Night Live on May 12, 2007, making her the second former female cast member to host (after J ulia Louis-Dreyfux) and the first one to have been a cast member for Lorne Michaels (Louis-Dreyfus was a cast member under Dick Ebersol).

In 2008, Shannon starred as Kath in the US version of the hit Australian sitcom Kath & Kim. Also in 2008, she starred in an episode of the comedy series Pushing Daisies and the TV movie More of Me.

After her project on Glee, she returned to Saturday Night Live for a special Mother's Day episode on May 8, 2010, and also the October 2010 reunion special "Women of SNL."

As of Spring, 2012, she has replaced Pauley Perette as the spokesperson for Expedia.com.

Shannon was announced, in April 2015, to star in the HBO series Divorce. She will portray Diane, Frances’ (fellow Glee guest star Sarah Jessica Parker) high-strung friend. [5]

She will reprise her role as Gail in the Netflix original eight-episode series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and it will air in July 2015. Jayma Mays, Glee recurring star, will also star in it.

Books

Shannon's first children's book,Tilly the Trickster, was released September 1, 2011.

Broadway

Shannon replaced Katie Finneran in the role of Marge McDougall in the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises on 12 October 2010, and will remain through its closure on 2 January 2011 along with co-stars Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth.